Almost a third of UK businesses are calling for the government to support British trade by reducing Brexit-related regulations and red tape.
A survey by Santander found that nearly three quarters (74 per cent) of businesses are confident they will grow in the next three years and 36 per cent are “very confident” about future growth, compared with just 22 per cent a year ago.
This, it said, highlighted a “growing sense of optimism” among small to medium-sized businesses as inflation and its impact starts to reduce.
However, a substantial proportion of businesses surveyed identified some key requests for the government to facilitate their international trade ambitions.
Nearly a third (31 per cent) of companies said they wanted to see a reduction in post-Brexit regulatory
